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I received my MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and my BA from Wellesley College with honors. I got my start on Wall Street more than two decades ago at Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley where I was an analyst in the investment banking group covering natural resources, diversified industrials and energy companies. I was also the chief investment officer of a family office–overseeing a $5.2 billion global private equity and publicly-traded equity fund, and co-vice chairman of the $500 million Ibero-American Partners Fund (1997 to 2003).
In 2004, my A&G Capital formed a specialized research arm and investment fund. The GreenTech 21st Century Master Fund focused on companies engaged in alternative energy, clean technologies, environmental infrastructure and services, agricultural and natural resources.
My book, "Ahead of the Curve", was released in 2007 by Simon & Schuster and prophetically projected the rise of the alternative energy and cleantech industries as well as the global depletion of oil reserves, rising energy and commodity prices and a global movement towards a healthier environment.
Financial Times senior columnist, John Dizard called me "a powerful and highly respected expert in the world of investing and asset management" and a "one-woman financial investment powerhouse." Today I'm an in-demand commentator whose work often appears in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Bloomberg, and Reuters and am a regular on CNBC, CNN, and the Fox News Channel, providing stock market insight and economic observations.

Time Warner-CBS: Making Good From Breaking Bad

English: The Time Warner Center as viewed from Central Park West. The globe from the Trump International Hotel and Tower can also be seen. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Previous disputes between networks and TV carriers have favored the companies most willing to bend the status quo in order to get viewers what they crave, even if it means weakening the long-term cord to cable.

The ongoing blackout of CBSCBS channels on 3 million Time Warner CableTime Warner Cable boxes has viewers scrambling to find alternate sources for programming ranging from Sunday afternoon golf to serial killer Dexter.

It could take months for the sides to reach a deal on fees and get the channels back on the menu, which is plenty of time for either company to make itself indispensable to those households – about 20% of TWC’s basic subscriber base but barely 3% of the national TV audience – or alienate them by cutting off their favorite shows.

True television addicts will do whatever it takes to get their fix. Surprising numbers of viewers in the blackout zone are actually buying antenna connections to reconnect to the channel via broadcast. Others are turning the TV off to watch the content stream across CBS.com or else buying a season pass on iTunes or Amazon. And as unauthorized download rates on shows like Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones demonstrate, murkier access channels abound online.

Last summer, AMC was a winner in its spat with satellite carrier Dish Network , which pulled its programming right before the season premiere of cult middle-class crime epic Breaking Bad. Instead of flinching, AMC streamed episodes for free online while running ads urging fans of the show to drop their Dish subscription.

Far from weakening the show, the blackout created publicity that encouraged new viewers to give it a chance. Breaking Bad is now a breakout hit and a phenomenon that makes money for AMC independent of all traditional TV distribution systems. Not coincidentally, AMCX shares have been soaring while DISH languishes.

CBS has yet to engage in that level of guerilla warfare against TWC, but as you might expect, its audience skews a little older, less technologically nimble and leerier of piracy than those who love the exploits of AMC’s Albuquerque teacher-turned-gangster. It’s unlikely illegal downloads will cut into the traditional 60 Minutes audience any time soon.

However, every programming interruption erodes the larger relationship between content and distribution by forcing viewers off the couch and onto the Internet to seek out new ways to consume the content. The TV audience is collectively a creature of habit, so as the habit of reaching for the cable remote weakens, new bonds form elsewhere.

The success of NetflixNetflix original streaming content and the buzz around GoogleGoogle’s new Chromecast device are great examples of those bonds forming outside the traditional cable/satellite TV universe. Netflix has evolved from postal video rental service to an Emmy-nominated source of original programming. Google hopes its latest gadget will be another nail in cable’s coffin by making it even easier to take Web content from the computer screen to the living room TV.

The phenomenon of “cable cutting” may be overstated, but it is clear that younger people who grew up in an online world simply don’t see the point of getting a cable subscription in the first place. From 2010 to 2012, about 5 million new households formed. Barely 200,000 of them signed up for any kind of dedicated TV service.

That’s a long-term threat to TWC, DISH or any other operator if they fail to evolve along with the shifting realities of how entertainment and other content is delivered. And it’s a long-term opportunity for content creators like CBS and AMCX to pursue more direct relationships with the people who have proved they will follow the content off the cable menu and wherever it goes.

I love TWC and think the company will be one of the winners. In the here and now, its ability to point angry subscribers to replacement programming – largely drawn from Time WarnerTime Warner feeds – should help it weather any backlash. After all, if Starz and Encore fill the hours just as well as the CBS-owned Movie Channel and Showtime did, it shows just which channels really are indispensable and what was only there to fill out the schedule.

And if viewers revolt or veer into legally shady areas to get what they want, then we know where CBS has the upper hand. As it is, CBS is still ahead in the overall ratings, despite having three of the nation’s biggest cities off its radar. That says it all right there.

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